Bridging the Gap & Congress Proposal

Day 2,449, 07:39 • Published in United Kingdom United Kingdom • by Mr Woldy


Representation

Following my poll of general thoughts and Congress usage, one statistic stuck out to me the most. Non congressmen were given the option of answering whether or not they felt adequately represented, and of those who answered, 33 gave a negative or unsure response, whilst only 13 could confidently say yes. Others left the question blank. I don’t think it is unfair to say that Congress is generally out of touch with the public, and whereas some may say this is because they don’t do anything or because we elect lazy Congressmen, I think it is more apt to explore what Congress’ responsibilities are before we aim to solve the issue of people being under represented.

Presently, I would say that Congress represent their party’s community (I use the word community as ‘membership’ is too broad and ‘elites’ too narrow) and that Congress represents itself to other parties, as Congress elections are at present a display of power between the parties who fight over the impeach power, making Congress a second step in the CP elections. The CP race is won, the Congress race secures it.

I suspect this this Congress culture has come about because Congress and the public have the impression that MP’s have little to do. Congressmen have been elected regardless of activity and with very low expectations. We get what we vote for - public expects Congress will do nothing, people aren’t surprised when they don’t, prejudice grows stronger.


Michelangelo says it better than me, TMNT has lessons for us all.

Since the politics module was altered and Congress elections were changed to a proportional representation model, the mechanic that filtered out poor congressmen was moved out of the hands of the public, and into the hands of PP’s. Our complacent, number focused PP’s have paid little attention to the quality of Congressmen that they run in favour of cramming the ballots with bodies who may or may not vanish after the 26th and the public has been too disillusioned with Congress and too held down by their parties to notice.

Congress exist as the regulating body who represent the public in keeping President’s in check and ensuring stability as the months roll on. That is the what Congress should be doing, and that is what we in the eUK have all overlooked. It doesn’t have to be about legislation, or even participation in ministries, the role of Congress is to constantly scrutinise the Cabinet, make demands of the CP and ensure that high standards are maintained, preventing Governments from blindly charging into doing short sighted or partisan actions.

This isn’t happening right now, and a lot of that comes down to two things; firstly the complacent attitude of PP’s in selecting Congressmen and encouraging them to work; and secondly the lack of pressure from the public on those PP’s to do so.



The lack of pressure from the public is partly to do with low expectations when it comes to Congress but also because the competitive element between parties has moved away from the public and into Congress/CP seats. At some point over the past two years, for some mad reason, a gentlemen’s agreement was made between the parties in which they agreed not to campaign and message each others members. This always baffled me, why the heck not? What we see is Party elites treating members like property who don’t have the right to leave or change party. To be frank that’s pretty messed up. All parties should be free to message each others members pointing out the pro’s of their own party, and the cons of others. That will kick PP’s into making sure that actually, their party does have clear opinions and stances, and more importantly, that actually they do run active and decent politicians for office. If we can make representation the measure of how good a party is, then we will encourage a decent congress from the bottom up.

That is why I have asked speakers of the house to publish records of which Congressmen do nothing, which go to sleep each month and which ones are generally un-useful. Congressmen too should be accountable, and the accountability of Congressmen only works through transparency; if the public can see which Congressmen are underperforming and if the public are encouraged not to vote for the party whose PP doesn’t give a damn about who they are running (look at how many people didn’t even write presentations last election and tell me that PP’s are proactive in vetting candidates), the system has the chance to correct itself; and to get that ball moving we need to reintroduce the competition between parties on a public rather than an institutional level. Anyone can help do that, just start messaging people about how good your party is and catalyse a response from others.

Because we have a two prong problem (we don’t expect Congress to do anything, so it’s hard to vote for actives) we need a two-prong solution (Remind them of their responsibilities, and hold them to account based on their activity).


PRESCOTT POW



Congress Proposal

We need to remind ourselves what Congress does; they can set laws and regulations, sure. But their main job should be to dog the Cabinet, to hold them to account and to make demands of the President if they feel they are underperforming. Their job is not to be yes-men. I have asked the speaker and Congress to request a weekly report from the CP to give MP’s something to peruse and the opportunity to ask questions are request improvement in whatever areas they see fit. Facilitating and encouraging that mindset is as important to fixing Congress as pressuring the public not to support complacent PP’s is.

I am also using this article to make an informal proposal to Congress and the next CP which I hope should also encourage Congressmen to apply more scrutiny to the Cabinet and to be more engaged with what goes on at an executive level.

The proposal is a two pronged request; firstly for the speaker to allow Congressmen to volunteer to be a part of Focus Groups (Or Committees, whatever term sounds nicer) who can organise their own form of communication, and who will be be based in groups loosely formed around the Cabinet ministries (Domestics, Defense, Foreign Affairs, Finance etc). Secondly, for the CP to allow those groups to interview Ministers, and to keep track of what is going on in those ministries more candidly and with more access than what Congress usually gets. I'm talking of an intimate marriage of Congress focus group and ministry, so Congress can closely observe governmental goings on.

Those focus groups can then report back to Congress on the activity and policies/performance of the ministries, as well as offering feedback to the Ministries based on what Congress says.

Ideas similar to this have been done before with some success, as they not only encourage Congressmen to keep track of Government, but it also allows the speaker and the public to see which Congressmen are more active than others.

I have tried to keep this proposal as a very rough and informal framework, and I hope fellow Congressmen debate this proposal in this article, as I am sure one or two may want to write it up either as legislation or suggestive guidelines if the house sees fit to write them down in stone. Personally I think it is the kind of organisation that can be done without strict rules, though if people are concerned with partisanship or fairness or more formal checks and balances then I can understand why passing an approval motion on the idea may be requested by some.



TL😉R: A good Congress is your first defense against a bad president. Only vote for parties that will give you Congressmen interested in representing you and ensuring the Cabinet operates to high standards. Game mechanics has put the power in Congress’s hands, they should use it. Party people shouldn’t feel like they shouldn’t message the sh!t out of everyone pointing out whose MP’s aren’t fulfilling that role.


Thanks for Reading.
Mr Woldy.







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